Theresa May has said that 95% of the Brexit deal is done

Yvette Wood |Wednesday, October 24, 2018

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His remarks are likely to infuriate Brussels and the Irish Republic, who have both insisted that a backstop - essentially an insurance policy created to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit - must be part of any withdrawal agreement.

Lidington is the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the man in charge of cross-government policy co-ordination on quitting the EU.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will tell the Commons on Monday that 95 per cent of the Brexit withdrawal agreement and its protocols are settled as she seeks to demonstrate to anxious MPs in her own party that she is making headway in the increasingly fraught divorce talks.

British Prime Minister Theresa May lost control over the warring factions within her government as the Cabinet descended into open conflict over her Brexit plans at an angry meeting on Tuesday.

While willing to consider extending the UK's transition period beyond 2020, she said this was "not desirable" and would have to end "well before" May 2022. That would require a border being drawn in the Irish Sea, and a different set of tariffs being applied on imports to Northern Ireland than those in Britain.

"With speculation swirling that May could face a leadership challenge, she has in recent days sought to placate Brexiteers in the Cabinet by hardening her stance on Brussels" plans to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland, declaring them "unacceptable".

The government responded that under the backstop the United Kingdom as a whole would stay in the shared customs territory on a time-limited basis.

Theresa May says only 5% of the withdrawal agreement is left to negotiate with Brussels.

A backstop proposal could not be time limited as it would not be a backstop.

There was also some querying of the government's intentions about the single market aspect of the backstop, by way of European Union standards.

He told BBC Radio's Good Evening Wales: "These (comments) are fairly lurid and not the sort of thing that one expects but it's an indication that there is a great deal of concern and I'm sure she will be wanting to do her best to allay that concern". It would just be a matter of scaling up checks on agricultural imports.

While the small but powerful Northern Irish DUP party - whose ten MPs are propping the Tories up in Downing Street - have also slammed the proposal.

The letter said scientific innovation "requires the flow of people and ideas across borders to allow the rapid exchange of ideas, expertise and technology".

Last night a Government spokesman struck a measured tone in response to Mrs May's speech and said "Ireland will listen to proposals that the United Kingdom brings forward, but any proposal has to be legally operative in ensuring that we avoid a Border between Northern Ireland and Ireland".

May appears no closer to solving the Irish backstop impasse, with MPs threatening to depose her if she makes further concessions to the European Union.

Mrs May told leaders of the remaining European Union member states in Brussels that she was willing to consider extending the transition period by a year.

"The shape of the deal across the vast majority of the Withdrawal Agreement is now clear".

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